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Kojima Predicts the End of the Console
nathanielinbrazil writes "Konami founder and developer Hideo Kojima predicts gaming console is a dying breed. Anticipates gaming on demand via Internet. 'It's a bold prediction,' Sony Computer Entertainment Japan President Hiroshi Kawano told reporters nervously. 'We hope he continues to develop for platforms, but we deeply respect his sense of taking on a challenge.' Kojima launches his follow-up game Heavy Metal Solid Gear: Peace Walker in late April designed for the PSP."
Thats the problem though, Microsoft has found that their entertainment industry is a bit of a money pit. Maybe not as bad as some people make it sound, but its not nearly as profitable as Office or Windows. Every X-box sold means they are losing money (the cost of producing one is more than the cost they sell it at, or the margins are so thin they don't make enough to justify shipping it out). They try to make more money in licensing for games, but more and more people are going "I don't want to pay $70 for a new game, I'll wait for it to go down to $30 used" - and so game sales are down.
If you lived in Canada, they had 1 vs 100 on Xbox live as a way to get people to buy XboxLive Gold subscriptions. I remember the calender for shows going at least till July, and some for even the christmas season this year. It appears to have been pulled, or post-poned. It's no longer active, and the only reason I can think why is that the cost of running it didn't bring in enough subscribers. And no one wanted to pay for advertising, which is why they had the same 4 ads played over and over.
Point is, games are where the money is at. You sell the console for petty sums and make it all up in game licensing. If you pay Microsoft to allow your game on the 360, that means the price of the game goes up, which means less sales, which means less profit for both you and MS. Microsoft has tried to counter this by buying up other game dev companies, or working in a coexisting sense. However, Microsoft has a knack for pissing developers right off. Remember Bungie? There's a reason why they left the agreement they had with MS, they didn't like working under them. And how many game companies can you name that were bought by MS that have either dissolved or turned into suck? I can think of one for every finger, at least.
I don't know what its like exactly at Sony or Nintendo, but it can't be too different. Nintendo has at least branched out to the casual gaming crowd and will easily keep afloat so long as they do what they've been doing. Sony has the benefit of Blu Ray winning the format war, so if you're thinking of a Blu Ray Player, the only reason not to buy one is the price, which when you consider its a gaming console as well (if you like gaming) then its a solid investment. So - if the trend continues, yeah, Microsoft will either have to change its ways, or it'll end up cutting the whole console business out of its strategy. Because right now, they aren't doing so hot.